Psalm 23

Week 31 (August)

"Afraid? Why should I be afraid? We've passed through worse things than a storm of rain before. He who has protected us for so long will protect us now."

As Renzo crouched behind that hut, hiding from the authorities, he could hardly believe his ears. That sweet melodic voice! Could it be Lucia?
It is a climatic moment for this engaged couple, hero and heroine of Alessandro Manzoni's novel, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). The voice talking about the care and protection of our Good Shepherd is indeed Lucia. At long last the two lovers are reunited.
An undisputed classic of Italian literature, I Promessi Sposi takes place 300 years ago when much of Italy was at the mercy of petty noblemen who, with their bands of arrogant desperados, trampled law and justice underfoot.
One of these villains is Don Rodrigo. He is intent on forcing Lucia to marry him instead of Renzo. She refuses and is forced to flee her peaceful village to escape his clutches.
The novel is the story of Lucia's and Renzo's search for each other in the turbulent history of early 17th-century Italy. It is very much a "valley of the shadow of death" described in Psalms 23: violent bread riots in Milan, the ravages of the Thirty Years War, famine, and finally the horrors of a bubonic plague epidemic.
In fact, it is a camp for dying plague victims that Renzo and Lucia are reunited after he hears her talking about the comfort and care of the Lord.
To be sure, Alessandro Manzoni's Lucia is not an evangelical Protestant. She is very much steeped in the Roman Catholicism of 17th-century Italy. However, her assuring words to a dying friend make me think of the affirmation of Psalm 23 that trusting in God will bring rest, peace (shalom), comfort, and even triumph in the presence of fear.
Psalm 23, that beloved passage from Hebrew hymnbook, is full of profound theological truths concerning the unique relationship human beings can have with their Creator. Framed in sheep/shepherd terms, Psalm 23 tells us a great deal about the nature of God and His desires for us.
God cares, protects, and even corrects his people, just as a good shepherd cares for his flock. God's presence with us is promised now and forever. And that includes whatever dark valleys may lie between here and forever -- be they bread riots or rainstorms.
Our Shepherd's loving care for us includes the rebuilding and restoring of shattered spiritual capacities. To obtain the bountiful blessings in Psalm 23 we must trust our Shepherd as fully and completely as a sheep trusts its shepherd.
I don't know what dark valleys you have been through lately. But, let me ask you a question. Can you say, "The Lord is my Shepherd"? If you can, then you will be able to repeat the other phrase as well: "I will fear no evil."

These devotional thoughts by Howard Culbertson appeared in the August 3, 1980 edition of Standard

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